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Monday, July 7, 2014

A WORD FROM THE READER: Guest post by Lyric Unger Bowditch

As we drive down from a weekend in NY, talk
turns to books. Actually, my daughter and I began to discuss books we love.
This happens a lot. Right now, my youngest is busy with his nose deep in one
and my husband is driving. We left my eldest back in NY so the conversation was
between Lyric and me. Lyric, who is now 15, has often been my sounding board,
my first reader, first editor, first critic. She taught me a lot about writing
for kids. First and foremost, don’t do it. That is, don’t ever write down to
kids because they are smarter than most adults.

So I asked her to write her own thoughts
about YA/MG literature. She is an excellent writer, reader, critic, poet, and I
am so glad to invite her here today.

Welcome, Lyric.

•

In the words of Le Petit Prince, “grown-ups like numbers
. . . You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.’
Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!’” If a novel has a 4.5-out-of-5-star
rating, in the eyes of such adults, it must be a good book. Too often, adults
feel a societal obligation to bear through literature that may not truly
interest them because of its social or intellectual prestige. Books written for
adults don’t always require the same attention-to-reader that young adult
literature does.

As a young adult, I
can attest that if a novel doesn’t engage me, I don’t care how highly it was
rated— I’m going to put it down. If the writer doesn’t paint a world so
visceral that my own world disappears as I read, then, regardless of the
writer’s esteem in literary circles across the nation, I won’t keep reading.
You authors of young adult literature have the difficult task of writing wholly
captivating stories, as the story is all that your audience cares about. Accordingly,
young adult literature makes up some of the best literature on the whole planet
(and the whole universe, for that matter).

As far as I’m
concerned, the labels “young adult” and “middle-grade” are largely misleading.
Young adult novels aren’t too callow or adolescent to be liked only by young
adults. Rather, they’re exciting and enthralling enough to be liked by young
adults. Any adult that claims to be too sophisticated to be interested by Harry Potter or too refined to enjoy Percy Jackson and the Olympians is, in
fact, too uncultured to appreciate fine literature on its own merit and the
pleasure of being lost in a good book.

-Lyric Unger Bowditch

•

I thought I’d include a photo of Lyric. Hers
is beautiful face that shines from the cover of The Ravens of Solemano… so I’ve
included that.

Exactly. I've always said those authors who write for adults have a lot more room and time to get their story across. Those of us who write for children need to tighten what we do. No meandering. Nothing sloppy. Just true story.

While I overall agree with what Lyric's saying, I do have to take issue slightly on this point-

"In the words of Le Petit Prince, “grown-ups like numbers . . . You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!’” If a novel has a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating, in the eyes of such adults, it must be a good book. Too often, adults feel a societal obligation to bear through literature that may not truly interest them because of its social or intellectual prestige. Books written for adults don’t always require the same attention-to-reader that young adult literature does."

I don't feel that way. At least not where books and other entertainment is concerned...Maybe I'm not an atypical "Grown up" but that's my truth and I'm standing by it!

I've had a lot mixed feelings about reviews, both in general and now writing them myself for my blog (and share elsewhere), and I've said often to my writer friends that feel their opinions shouldn't REALLY matter because they're not their readers the book's, and to be fair, us career-minded author do need to deal with this on some level and I respect that, especially now I'm finally on the other end of equation, not just the adoring lay reader I used to be.

It's OKAY to not like a book, regardless if you're not the target market, especially if we're going to preach the "A good book to YOU is a good book to YOU! Period." with ANY level of merit. That applies to adults as much as kids and teens, right?

Heck, I LOVE books most people my age (who aren't writers, and ESPECIALLY if they don't have kids of their own, be they biological or students if you're a teacher) wouldn't normally TOUCH let alone read, so why can't the opposite be true?

It's OKAY to not like a book, even if it's heralded as the "Miracle" of literature. I didn't like lots of books when I was in their target age range, and that's no less valid now.

Writers are readers, too, and we have to honor that, but it doesn't mean we have to witch hunt the author or those who like that author's book(s).

We also need to acknowledge that tastes change can and do BROADEN as we get older.

Sure, there are things I LOVED at 7 that I still love now at 27, but there are also things I'd NOT love at 13 that I loved at 23.

I didn't become a true reader (for pleasure) until I was 16! That wasn't because I had reading problems, it just took that long to find the books I loved versus what I read for school.

That's another reason (among others, mind you) why I'm so motivated to be an author.

So late blooming readers like me can know they're not alone.

It's great that many in the "Project Mayhem" community had those great early reading moments, but some of us didn't, but we don't let it make our late blooming to pleasure reading be less meaningful had we come to it sooner, even though we feel left out sometimes because of that. I still struggle to work through that sometimes.

Sometimes, I fear we champion early childhood so much, and understand I'm NOT against that, we forget that for some people, life got better when we're a bit older.

I agree with your point, Taurean. Adult readers are no less significant than young adult or middle-grade readers; the act of reading is no less sacred when done by an adult than when done by someone younger. However, the point I was making was not about the readers, but about the books themselves. As you said, tastes evolve and expand with age ("tastes change can and do BROADEN as we get older"). Because of that, books for adults don't have to be as reader-focused or story-centered as books for young adults, at least in my opinion. Thanks for your thoughts on the topic.

DISCLAIMER

The authors of Project Mayhem do their best to provide accurate, witty, and sometimes manic information pertaining to all things middle grade. Any resemblance to anybody else's manic, witty, and accurate information is purely serendipitous. However, the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the other writers on this blog. Except, we all agree that reading Project Mayhem will brighten your day. Drop by mic.